Stop Wildlife Poisoning

Category: carbofuran | Date: Apr 03 2009 | By: Martin Odino

Hello dear readers. Yesterday we received with joy the news that FMC has officially halted the shipment of furadan into Kenya (all of East Africa, South Africa and Africa at large) and will buy back the existing stockpiles laying dangerously in our agrovet stores presumably within eight weeks. Bravo FMC!
However, while the pesticide still lies in the care of agricultural store keepers and poachers, we know poisoning by this lethal compound will still continue. Worse is if greedy agrovet store keepers will stash away some stock to continue supplying some poachers to whom the commodity is treasure (at the moment, the commodity’s cost has risen. Maximizing on sales by retailers?!).We are therefore still crying loud and bitter to the local pesticide regulation bodies to act and bar the product that may still be widely circulating out there even with the retrieval by its manufacturer. It is doubtless that this pesticide is just a careless murderer and therefore no doubt that its restriction would be the noble action to be imposed on it locally, or else it will continue with the massacre of wildlife.
My survey has and continues to witness sorry scenes but also beautiful ones, with the latter likely to be more pronounced if Furadan becomes history. Furadan poisoning of vultures in Kenya has resulted in shocking mortalities of the scavenger birds. With generally all birds of prey at the worst risk (of all kinds of birds) since they have lower reproductive rates and successes, their beauty here in Busia is something of a spectacle, but I cannot help fearing if they will survive. Not if there is evidence of poisoning of their counterparts in my full view.

The Yellow-billed Kite above was seen in my study site. A poacher confessed to having seen it feeding on a furadan poisoned waterbird.

Looking at the dorsal side of this bird, it appears poked, most likely the action of a bill of another scavenging bird. An abommination, since this other bird may also have ended up dying! It is for this reason that I fear if the raptors are surviving the poisoning alright.

The shed above is normally used by the person overseeing the field operations in rice production. After rice harvesting, the poachers take over and use it as a slaughter house! This explains the scattered feathers about the structure.

This male Common Kestrel is sitting on top of the shed above. May be to catch his breath given he is hunting insects (I saw them catch locusts) in strong tropical heat. That would be ok. Much as we know that Kestrels hunt and don’t scavenge, we can just never be so sure. With the stress of the heat and need to be well fleshed on their journey back North, I  dreaded that he may have seen some entrails thrown about by poachers and tempted to pick them up which would be risky because these would have the fresh poison. Or furadan-laced insect bait forgotten or left behind by poachers. Well, just my fear.

Another Common Kestrel came to occupy the same position after the other one had left.

Yet another Kestrel, warming up for the day.

A Kestrel, now in flight!

More Kestrels (appearing above the two hills)at a beautiful sunset.

A Black-chested Snake Eagle.

Post-furadan days should be hey days!safer birds and wildlife!

Tags: biodiversity, Black-chested Snake Eagle, FMC, furadan, Kenya, Kestrel, vultures, Wildlife, Yellow-billed Kite

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Category: Pesticides, carbofuran | Date: Sep 20 2008 | By: Martin Odino

A dog’s death is causing serious concern in Orleans! Though the poisoning ruling is based on clear symptoms by the dog suggesting anticoagulant rodenticide poisoning rather than toxicological analysis, this just shows how sensitive and animal welfare mindful the Orleans community is. We have lost at least 58 big cats amongst many other wildlife in hardly a decade and seemingly nobody is moved!

Recreating our blog’s banner below, poisoning defines the transition from rich, beautiful,living WILDLIFE to scary, dead WILDDEAD! This is where our insensitivity is taking us!

It is impressive that Health Canada has implemented a number of measures to guard the citizens as relates to rodenticide and pesticide use. In a number of areas in Kenya, poisoning of particularly birds is on-going at the ‘poachers’ expense. Kenyan bird meat consumers continue enjoying especially carbofuran-killed wild fowl meat without fear of toxic effects against them. I should fear a chemical that has a reputation of killing anything from a lion to the flies that suck the fluids effusing from the decomposing lion’s carcass. But I would not mind if a trial on the pesticide carbofuran baited bird going back to some years before many of my generation were born did not result in the death of the ‘guinea pigs’ then, who happened to be our parents’ generation. But where is the medical proof that they did or did not suffer from the effects of lethal carbofuran? Who knows if for sure somebody having died from severe diarrhoea did not contract the diarrhoea after a bite of poisoned meat, or the violent seizures that shook a juvenile to his death were not a violent epileptic feat, but the toxic effects of poisoned fowl after giving the child the lion’s share by its parents to boost his growth to a strong adult. Who even cares to tell them of the lethal effects of the chemicals anyway when the appointed bodies sit tight and complacent that the instruction labels are sufficient. What is more is that the instructions are lacking. Yet Kenyans are not a traditionally an English-speaking community. What of the storage and usage security? A frank statement by a user to the manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of pesticides, in essence poisons that “If we’re going to sell this stuff, we should make sure it’s sold to us properly with proper instructions,”

Reading on the Orleans’s poisoning story, one consumer/user acknowledges that relying on pesticide administration by individuals is not good enough. Kenya’s wildlife is at risk where it has sometimes become a ‘pest’ in certain instances such as where lions attack livestock etc. Yet again we have insufficient control of such cases thereby driving the livestock owners to act in anger and frustration in many cases ending up even in unintended wildlife target death.

One animal welfare personnel rules that the best way to avoid accidental poisoning is to avoid using poison altogether. Poisons are not a way to deal with wildlife. Though many fingers are rightly pointing to the manufacturers and pesticide issues custodians who have the herculean role to bring changes to this wildlife poisoning problem, we all have a role to play.

I am all set for a carcass collection at one target site in Kenya where poisoning is to happen quite soon. I know I will get casualties there and it is sad that I cannot stop it. It is sad that I will be getting samples to prove that Furadan is finishing our wildlife. It is painful that the pesticide custodians who should be the ones out there assessing the situation and doing everything right to control their pesticide product which has turned rogue will be awaiting for my findings only to challenge the finding’s credibility. I am worried that this evidence might only attain the status of being ‘enough’ after the only remaining lions are creeping on their bellies with lack of psychomotor coordination, all vultures will have fallen off the skies, while there will be no twilight laughter from the jovial hyenas!

Tags: Canada, Dog, hyenas, Lion, Orleans, Pest Management Regulatory Agent, poison, vultures

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Category: carbofuran | Date: Sep 09 2008 | By: Martin Odino

All our posts have been centered on large animals, illustrating carbofuran poisoning in lions, hyenas and vultures. The explanation behind this lies in effective exposure to the chemical pesticide.Their mode of feeding-carnivorous and scavenging -therefore accords these organisms the highest vulnerability. This just proves that ingestion or swallowing is the most effective way of getting the toxic substance into a living organisms body system. Further, fish have also been reported to have been killed through Furadan poisoning, other birds (non-vulturine), wildebeests, warthogs, crocodiles, just to mention those.

Clearly, out of the 8 divisions (technically and more precisely reffered to as phyla, these are sponges, worms, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals) of the members of the Animal Kingdom, it is not just fish,mammals,birds and reptiles that are suffering but also the other mentioned in brackets but sponges. Only the sponges can be said at a lower risk given that they are oceanic rather than part of inland biodiversty. The large volume of the oceanic waters in which they are found also confers them some safety since it would require more carbofuran than can be produced on earth at the present time to get the waters concentrated eneough to destroy the sponges. This post will therefore focus on alleged or reported highly suspected carbofuran poisoning cases for smaller or inconspicuous or ignored animals.

Insects and their likes, which constitute the division (phylum) Arthropoda-the largest animal group constituting 95% of the animals- in as much as pesticides are designed to kill them, I would say, have been ignored. I believe no organism is too abundant not to be destroyed altogether or be driven to extinction. In one of the posts in another of wildlife direct’s blogs, there were lions reported to have died from Furadan poisoning. Shockingly but also reported nonetheless was that flies that came to get tit bits of the fouled carcasses also died on their meal. Well, I have also been able to get reports that Honey bees have died of Furadan poisoning in Naivasha and Kitui, Kenya. Honey bees not only make a highly nutritious and medicinal substance, honey ,but they are also very important in pollination of our rops and other plants. In Naivasha, Kenya, Furadan is used to kill termites and is proclaimed even more effective than the pesticides intended to kill termites. In Busia, Bunyala, the Leech was a feared worm by the paddy field workers and the blood sucker would stick on one’s upper legs and suck blood till one used a knife to cut it off. Though a worm, it falls in a different category and it poses no threat to rice or any other crop. Presently, the farmers have noted the worm has declined and not as common as it used to be in the paddy fields. A few cannot stop thinking that  Furadan may be behind the decline in the leech numbers.

If I recall clearly, carbofuran is branded a nematicide. But what has been witnessed is an indiscriminate mortality situation cutting across the entire animal kingdom. Carbofuran leaves a lot to be desired as far as its pesticidal role is concerned. It is a chemical pesticide that leaves many questions unanswwered such as if it can cause secondary poisoning and the scope of the broad spectrum of living things that it can wipe out. There is great need for more intensive testing of the effects of the pesticide and if at all it has to remain in use as a pesticide, it should prove its ‘innocence’ and subsequently may be win again the confidence of wildlife conservationists.

Tags: amphibians, animal kingdom, arthropoda, Birds, bodiversity, carbofuran, fish, fishtoxic, honey bees, hyenas, insects, lions, mammals, reptiles, sponges, Tanzania, termitesKenya, vultures, Wildlife Direct, wildlife poisoning, worms

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Category: Hippopotamus, Organophosphates, Pesticides, carbofuran, lions | Date: Sep 08 2008 | By: Martin Odino

Hi,

Secondary poisoning refers to when a consumer gets intoxicated by eating another organism that has the poison in its system.

Secondary poisoning is known in a number of other chemical pesticides for instance organophosphates. In carbofuran, a carbamate, it is argued whether or not secondary poisoning actually does occur.

It is a known fact that carbofuran is a sleek killer especially in birds. It is also true that organisms with bigger body mass die after a longer time compared to animals with smaller body mass which die faster. I have witnessed small seed-eating birds succumb to carbofuran within 5 minutes while bigger Storks may take up to half an hour or more. In simple explanation,the chemical must get incorporated in the consumer’s tissues and if this consumer dies and is predated upon by another which in the process also gets intoxicated, then secondary poisoning is said to have occured.

There have been reported cases of possible secondary poisoning in Kenya: lions getting intoxicated after feeding on poisoned hippopotamus, vultures after feeding on poisoned carnivore. Today I talked to a senior scientist in a prominent organization who pointed out that after working it out with the chief vet of their wildlife conservation organization, the Lethal Dose (LD) required to kill a hippo is actually much lower compared to the hippo’s body mass. So, some some granules of carbofuran sprinkled on the grass will intoxicate the hippo (and any other herbivore) and even though the lethal dose required to kill the hippo is not attained, the dose may well be enough to kill a wild dog. Nonetheless, my reasoning in the lions getting intoxicated by the alleged carbofuran poisoning of the hippos is that the hippo may have taken much more of the carbofuran and while this may have paralysed the hippos nervous system, not all of it was ‘used’. Therefore, the ‘excess’ carbofuran that circulated in the hippo while still alive and was not ‘used’ in paralysing the nervous system of the hippo got to its tissues and the amount being equal or more than the lion’s lethal dose (the lion’s whose mass may just be about a quarter of the hippos) got the lions got intoxicated.

If that is so and if it is man who had eaten the hippo(as he has been known to in some places), then may be he would have probably succumbed to the poisoning much faster than the lions. Still on man, as earlier said, I have seen Storks take over 30 minutes before dying after eating Carbofuran-laced snails. Man eats these guys regularly. Since the similar organophosphates’ poisoning results to chronic/persistent effects in wildlife and people, there might be chronic effects due to carbamates as well and cumulatively, these could be catastrophic. I cannot avoid worrying that in the long run, most of our wildlife and man are actually already intoxicated and continue to be by carbofuran.

Just a thought for the day!

Tags: , carbofuran, lions, Organophosphates, Pesticides, secondary poisoning, vultures

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Category: Organophosphates | Date: Sep 03 2008 | By: Martin Odino

The Kenyan-based raptor conservationist Simon Thomsett once put it in a statement that seemed humorously ridiculous, “I literally saw vultures drop from the skies”. The vultures in refernce here had eaten furadan-laced carcass. Reading the King George Bald Eagle’s incidence, I get the feeling that he may have literally dropped from the skies and sadly succumbed to injuries sustained due to disorientation by the organophosphate poisoning.

Tags: Bald Eagle, furadan, organophosphate poisoning, Simon Thomsett, vultures

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 09 2008 | By: Martin Odino

There have been outcries of landmark poisoning incidences starting with ourselves here at Wildlife Direct of carnivores, scavengers- usually hyenas and vultures, and raptors (real predators rather than scavenging). No doubt these are now known to have our attention and need our acting for their survival.

History is ingrained with wild ducks as prime victims of sport hunting. In the USA, migratory duck shooting is an annual event. Northerly- southerly migrating flocks of ducks do not go without some of their members dropping down from the skies at the force of a sport- hunter’s artillery. Sometimes, though proclaimed illegal, lead bullets are used, leaving duck family members’ numbers (and definitely other living organisms) imperilled by lead poisoning. Biologists sampling the bottoms of wetlands in the US and other waterfowl hunting areas have found in some areas more than 100,000 lead pellets per acre in the upper few inches of bottom samples. Diving ducks are more likely to swallow lead shot. Snow geese and swans can dig even deeper – as much as 12 to 15 inches deeper. Kenya apparently is not free of duck shooting either, the incidence of the shooters not willing to give or even sell some of their dead ducks to National Museums of Kenya scientists for avian flu testing in Mwea early this year (2008) leaves us with a lot fear if there is no threat of lead poisoning from lead shot as well. This is however yet to be proved.

In western Kenya, some bird hunters report that in the 1990s, it was possible through carbofuran poisoning to get up to 50 ducks a day. These are mostly the white-faced whistling ducks. In May 2008, I only witnessed a pair of the ducks on one occasion, then 3 individuals on another and that was about all that I saw in 5 days. The locals admit the number of the ducks which in the past years would average flocks of at least 8 individuals has generally dived.

Yesterday (7/7/2008) I got an email from a renowned, noble, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Hon Warden David Mead, whose efforts led to deregistration of carbofuran for use in the Mwea Rice Scheme in particular reference against poisoning ducks and other waterfowl in the 1990s. He was surprised when I told him that I had been informed the previous evening (6/7/2008) that there was still poisoning going on in Mwea Rice Scheme. David did not rule it out and went on to digest for me the likely situation based on his vast experience. He revealed that where the ducks are many, there was almost certainly poisoning. This is where the poisoners target! Here’s what he wrote, “I must confess to surprise, as I have informers at Mwea who have a vested interest in keeping an eye on things. However that’s not to say it’s still not happening, but there are very few Tree Ducks on the scheme this year, when they are usually very numerous in May and June, and thus it is doubtful that it’s worth anyone’s while to attempt to catch by Furadan use on the Rice Scheme itself? I can give no valid reason for the fewer ducks, so it is quite possible they are being targeted (poisoned) on the banks of the Tana River, where they rest up prior to flying on to the scheme. They rest up several kilometers below (downstream of) the big Tana R. bridge, which is on the main Nairobi/Nyeri road….” I just wonder where the once very many ducks of Mwea and Bunyala are going..

Are the ducks numbers going down and their status up the ranks of the threat categories with the poisoning just augmenting the situation? We need to be on the lookout.

Tags: Carnivores, ducks, hyenas, National Museums of Kenya, poisoning, vultures, Wildlife Direct

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